Amazon Conservation Ranch

Protecting flora and fauna by private ownership

Guarding the integrity and natural diversity of the Amazon Basin is an essential
task, but government-declared National Parks and NGO-sponsored projects are
more for show than conservation. Only concerned, private
ownership can guarantee the safety of this land with its precious forests and wildlife.

Our ranch extends over some 188 square kilometers (73 square
miles) of forests and savanah in the tropical lowlands of Northeast Bolivia. Because it is both a profitable cattle ranch
and assures strict conservation, it might be of interest as an example: others could certainly implement the same methods.

We own 18,806.9 hectares (= 46,471.8 acres; 188 sq. kilometers; 72.6
sq. miles) in the Amazonic lowlands of North East Bolivia in the
Canton of San Joaquin, Provincia Mamore, Departemento of the Beni.

Our land includes both virgin forests and open savannah that was
always grassland and never de-forested. On part of the grassland we
raise cattle without using any feeds pesticides or fertilizers. We do
not touch the forests and allow no hunting whatsoever : we absorb the occasional losses of cattle to jaguars and anacondas. We have found that if there is no hunting, our cattle are mostly left alone by jaguars. which have plenty of other prey starting with the collared peccary (tayassu tajacu) and deer (mazama americana). We do fish, and the abundance of delicious piranha supplies any possible food needs. We employ only local people, and our relations with the indigenous population are
excellent.

Several national parks have recently been proclaimed in the Amazon
basin, but none is effectively protected. The guards are few, poorly
paid, and hardly supervised--they themselves often facilitate illegal
logging and hunting for small tips. National parks that exist only on
paper are actually worse than nothing at all: before, the land belonged to someone,
forest-dwelling natives or at least colonist-squatters who might shoot all they could eat but would deter fun hunting by others. Once the park is established, the land belongs to "the public", ie., to no-one in
particular. Everyone goes in to take what he can, valuable timber,
jaguars and ocelots for their pelts, rare birds for the black market. In Santa Cruz, increasingly rare tucans and macaws are always on sale illegally but openly, at street corners. They invariably come from the National Park, where they were trapped by the guards.

Very few NGOs even try to protect land. When they do so, they do it by funding local NGOs to act for them. That assures a pleasingly local , sometimes even an indigenous identity. But their university-trained, English-speaking
staff which resides in the big cities do not themselves guard the remote protected lands, indeed they only rarely visit. Instead they pass small sums to local guards, who are not supervised. Effective protection is impossible by such means.

Under Bolivian law, foreigners can freely purchase land. With due
care to all required procedures, valid, uncontested legal title can be secured. Ambient
conditions in Amazonic Bolivia preclude successful soya cultivation,
so that land prices are low.

Amazonic Bolivia is safe. There are no guerillas or bandits and the
narcotics trade, if present at all, is invisible and totally non-violent.
There is less crime in our part of Bolivia than in most parts of
Europe or the United States: we never lock our
doors and need no guns.

Lands can be effectively protected at low cost. Our experience with
local employees is that fair treatment and adequate supervision evoke
loyalty to our venture. The younger generation is
ecologically sensitive and needs no instruction in protecting nature

There is a similar prevalence of reptiles and a huge variety of birds.

Pink River Dolphin

Wildlife commonly seen includes alligators, families of
capybaras, huge pink river dolphins (inia geoffrensis) macaws,
parrots, and the ostrich-like Rhea. Among the great variety of fish,
the most notable are the Tucunare' (peacock bass) the very big Arapima
gigas, Sorubim lima, Hoplias malabaricus Pygocentrus nattereri
(Redbellied Piranha), Serrasalmus rhombeus (Black Piranha), and
Serrasalmus elongatus (Elongate Piranha).

Land acquisition

We are especially interested in finding buyers for lands around our
ranch, to add to its conservation value: wide-ranging Jaguars
especially require more land than we have. But we can also help with
the purchase of fully Amazonic rainforests in the northern Beni and the Pando departenento.

Piranha

We can ourselves conduct or assist the entire process, from initial exploration with maps and photos, through topographic survey by an officially authorized surveyor with GPS measurements (a legal requirement to secure title), the legal investigation of any other ownership or indigenous rights' claims, the definition of title, the payment of property transfer taxes, the issue of the final official title by the government's land authority (INRA); and the erection of all-round fencing with gates , which is also legally required. The commercial side of the procedure is to first negotiate a price per hectare, determining the total amount only when the geodesic measurement is completed.
We exclude from consideration any land that is near villages or
potentially attractive to settlers or subject to any
indigenous rights or claims. Fortunately, the population of the Beni is so low that such necessary exclusions still leave vast tracts of intact forest and savannah.

Nobody should contemplate any purchase without first visiting tropical
Bolivia and the specific tract of land That requires the use of light
aircraft. boats, horses erc. We can organize such visits at cost.

Continuing Ownership and Operation

Owners are legally required to fence their property and pay a small
annual municipal land tax of roughly US$0.50 per hectare (US$ 20
cents/acre).

If requested, we are ready to assume responsibility for the above and
/or to provide continuing protection with our supervised staff, each of whom we know personally. We can also build attractively and cheaply for private holiday use, fishing or eco-tourism. In savannah areas, where low-density, natural cattle
raising is inherently profitable, we can equip, staff, and supervise
cattle operations on the model of our own San Joaquin ranch and
subject to the same environmental restrictions.